Pine - Turtle - Talon Loop

For now--this is our favourite 5-hour canoe route.  I've written before about Talon Chutes and Pimisi Bay--definetly on our list of places to go, so for now, our new fav route is the Pine - Turtle - Talon Loop.  We stared this trip where the road bisects the portage from Lake Talon into Pine Lake.  We pulled over to the side of the road (Point A), unloaded and portaged the 20 m to Pine Lake.

Pine Lake is a small pristine lake found about 20 minutes west of North Bay along the waterway from North Bay to Mattawa.  There are a few small islands in the middle and a couple of nice camping spots.  We have been here many times.  It is a sheltered lake with high hills on the south side.  We paddled west to the portage (Point B) and spotted some turtles.  It is a short portage into Turtle Lake.

Once into Turtle Lake we travlled about 100 m before we bumped into an impressive beaver dam.  John and I climbed out and we ferried the boat over and admired the work of the beaver.

The last time we were in Turtle Lake was a couple of years ago with Bob Milling and his boys (Gabe and Luke).  We discovered the same campsite that we had visited with the Millings.  A beautiful site at the east end of the lake.  The site had a pair of Merlins nesting and they let us know that we were welcome as long as we kept our distance. 

We kept trying to capture their call--but whenever we started the camera--they stopped.

Turtle Lake has a dam at the western end.  It was fun to run this little set of rapids and explore the narrow lakes that followed.

There is a nifty little swift between Werwolf Lake and Moosegrass Lake (D).  It was fun to move through it and play.  Easy and fun.  At the end of  Moosegrass Lake we encountered a short difficult portage (E).  The terrain and condition of the trees reminded me of a scene from a WWI movie.  It looked like the area had been hit with an artillery barrage.  It would be cool to go back at night and walk through the area.

There is one campsite on Bigfish Lake facing southwest.  We made note just in case we're looking for a one night adventure.  The final lake before Talon is Tillard Lake.  It joins Talon through a narrow winding river.  It was very enjoyable to paddle through this area.  The banks and bottom of the river were sand and the trees along the shoreline were more scrub than the typical mixed forest for this area.  As the river entered Talon the sound of the crickets was almost deafening (F).

The final leg of the journey took us along the western shore of Lake Talon to the portage (A).

This was an excellent 1 day trip.  It took us 5 hours and we loved every minute.